Here are Seacoast golfers seeking NH Stat Am title in 2024

Clubmates Harvin Groft and Jabe Felch, who represent two-thirds of the three-way playoff for the recent Seacoast Amateur Golf Championship, are part of a contingent of nearly two dozen area players who will tee it up in the 121st New Hampshire Amateur Championship which opens Monday at Concord Country Club.

Groft rebounded from a poor second round (by his standards) to shoot a 1-under-par 70 at Breakfast Hill Golf Club on the last day and Felch, who previously had never made the cut in the Seacoast Am, was playing in the final group for the first time. Both players belong to The Oaks Golf Links in Somersworth which captured its first team title.

Although both fell just short of a title, those performances could instill some confidence going forward as they look to qualify for the match play portion of the event during stroke play on Monday and Tuesday. Those two rounds will be followed by four days of match play that concludes with a 36-hole final on Saturday at Concord CC, a par 70, 6,449-yard layout.

“I’ve made a few deep runs,” said Dover’s Brett Wilson, who has a record five Seacoast Am titles to his credit. “I’ve never made the final. It’s a heart-breaking tournament. There’s only one person who wins. I’d love to win one. It gets harder every year.”

Wilson, who is coming off a top-10 finish in the Seacoast Am, looks to make another deep run this year. He reached the semifinals in 2021 in North Conway and the quarters in 2022 when the tournament was held at Abenaqui Country Club in Rye.

Groft returns after missing the State Am last year with a torn oblique muscle that caused him to withdraw from the 2023 Seacoast Am following the second round and sidelined him for three months.

The field of 156 also includes Portsmouth CC’s Jared Lamothe who captured the 1999 State Am. The low 64 after two days and 36 holes of qualifying will advance to match play.

Two-time State Am champ Craig Steckowych (1990, 1998) will miss the tournament because of hernia surgery. He also sat out the Seacoast Am which he has won three times.

Wilson is very familiar with Concord CC.

“I’ve played Concord at least once the last 32 years,” he said. “I love Concord. It’s similar to Cochecho where I grew up playing. It will be a good test. There will be a lot of birdies and it will be a very difficult course to win at.”

The State Am will be played at Rochester Country Club next year and Dover’s Cochecho CC in 2026.

Rochester’s Jamie Ferullo, a first-time dad who won the 2023 Seacoast Am and finished sixth this year, opted out of this year’s version of the State Am in order to spend more time with his wife and newborn daughter.

Other notables include Rochester’s Kory Ferullo who finished in a tie for fourth in the Seacoast Am, a career best. He was T11 last year and T13 two years ago.

“I’m pretty happy with the progression on that,” he said. “The more exposure I get with competition play certainly helps. I think my game is in a good spot right now ball-striking-wise. I’m putting myself in good (position) every day to make birdies and I’m scrambling pretty well too.”

Kory Ferullo has qualified for match play several times but has yet to win a match at the State Am so that will be his immediate focus.

“If I can get there that would be a huge accomplishment,” he said. “You’ve got to start somewhere.”

Wilson, Lamothe and Portsmouth’s Peter Lown tied for eighth in the Seacoast while Portsmouth’s Connor Allard and Farmington’s Derek Dinwoodie finished in a tie for 11th.

Following the two rounds of stroke play qualifying the format changes as does the strategy.

“You have to be more aggressive in match play,” Wilson said. “The governor comes off on Wednesday morning. You don’t worry about making a big number. That’s just one hole. It’s a grind. It’s mentally taxing. It’s physically taxing. A lot of things have to go your way. You can’t play the amount of golf that has to be played to win that tournament and play well every round.”

Portsmouth’s Grey Gagnon, 14, is also in the field after making the cut on the number in his Seacoast Am debut and finishing in a tie for 16th. The Portsmouth High sophomore, who shot an even-par 71 in the third and final round of the Seacoast Am (behind only Groft’s 70), is believed to be the youngest golfer to play in that tournament, which turned 44 this year.

Keith Stone, a member of Pease Golf Course who won the Tony Loch Senior Division, also qualified for the State Am. Nick McLaughlin, who won his third Seacoast Am last weekend, resides in Massachusetts and will be playing in the Massachusetts Amateur Championship July 8-12.

“I did not play well this past weekend in the Seacoast,” Wilson said. “I patched together a few holes here and there but overall I lacked consistency. Match play is entirely different. Provided I can make the cut, maybe I can patch something together. It gets harder every year. There’s so much talent in the state now.”

Kory Ferullo hit 13 of 14 fairways in the final round of the Seacoast Am at Breakfast Hill Golf Club.

“I try not to inflate my expectations but at the end of the day I’d like to make a good push,” he said. “I feel like I’ve been striking the ball really well.”